TCCOM REPORT #58

REPORTING OFFICER: High Admiral Plif, TIE Corps Commander
DATE SUBMITTED: 31 AUG 24
ACTIVE DUTY ROSTER COUNT: 168 (+9)

NEWS

Raise the Flag 2024 is live! There've been a few posts about that in Discord and on the site already, so I won't go over all of that again here in the TCCOM Report. Instead, I'll summarize some of the changes we did and even didn't make for this year's event.

As we have since RtF20, each game has its own point values per match. Those have been tweaked to reflect the current state of each game. What's different this year is that since we've implemented grouping bonuses in the combat rating systems, those grouping bonuses also apply to the point system in RtF24. This is one more incentive to nudge pilots towards grouping up as opposed to solo queuing.

This year we have some additional games to play for points: Classic Battlefront, Star Wars Hunters, Destiny 2, and the freshly-announced Helldivers 2. With so many options, there's bound to be someone to catch everyone's interest this month if playing for their squadrons and battlegroups weren't enough!

Before RtF24, we reviewed comments that we've gotten about RtF every year and also specifically about RtF23. One of the common requests has been for quality-based placement bonus competitions for SP, PvE, and PvP. We haven't included them in RtF24 for the same reasons we dropped them before. If you hold a quality-based event in the midst of a spam-based event for the same activity, participants have to choose between spending that time on quality or spam because time is a finite resource. As a result, the quality-based event only attracts the pilots that decide that it's "worth it", which isn't the kind of decision we want to push pilots to make. Instead, the spam competition remains the spam competition and the quality-based events have the stage the rest of the year. Fiction and graphics are handled differently because the concept of "spam" in those categories leads to some strange places and creates a judging issue.

We also haven't created award systems for single games or modes like SP because we don't want to create a motivation for pilots to pick one thing and feel like they have to only play that one thing in order to do well enough for its award. If a pilot is playing Hunters by themselves and gets invited to play Helldivers 2 with a group, having an incentive to decline in order to continue putting time into PvP to earn a PvP-specific Iron Star isn't the kind of system we want for RtF.

As we have every year, I'm sure we'll be offered lots of comments and suggestions as RtF24 goes along. We have a new channel in Discord set up specifically for that feedback, #rtf-suggestion-box. The plan is to fix what we can on the fly and that channel will help us do that.

SMURFING

I wanted to take a moment to call out a form of harmful conduct that I hope we can avoid in Raise the Flag because this event's setup makes it an attractive proposition. In games with skill-based or any kind of internal rating system for their matchmaking, creating a new account resets that rating and leads to being matched up with newer players. That's known in the gaming space as "smurfing".

Smurfing is bad for a game's community because it undermines skill-based matchmaking, leading newer players to think that they're worse than they actually are while smurfing players are intentionally manipulating a system that's intended to keep multiplayer fun and challenging for everyone.

When an event like RtF comes along and rewards winning without any regard for your rating, level, gear, etc., participants are given an unnatural reason to win matches regardless of difficulty, in-game rewards, the prestige that comes along with attaining a higher rank, etc.

And so we're keeping an eye out for smurfing as screenshots are processed. If a pilot suddenly changes accounts after spending a lot of time on their previous account, that's the telltale sign. There are some legitimate reasons that a pilot might change accounts like a game not having crossplay and the pilot has the game on more than one platform, so we're keeping that in mind when we need to contact a pilot about having switched accounts.

TITLE HOLDERS

The Raise the Flag event each year confers three titles to recognize the top ship, squadron, and individual pilot from the competition. These are the current holders of those titles.

TIE Corps Flagship: ISDII Warrior

TCCOM's Escort Squadron: Lambda

TCCOM's Wingman: CM Vanguard88

TIE CORPS UNITS

Note: The database counts the three NPCs and counts the TCCOM, SOO, and WO towards Battlegroup II, so there’s some differences between what it shows and what I’ve listed here.

TIE Corps Command Staff (4)

• ISDII Hammer, Wing I (53)
  • Alpha Squadron (12)
  • Delta Squadron (9)
  • Epsilon Squadron (12)
  • Gamma Squadron (9)
  • Lambda Squadron (11)
• ISDII Grey Wolf, Wing XIII (0)
  • STANDING BY

• ISDII Warrior, Wing II (44)
  • Kappa Squadron (10)
  • Rho Squadron (12)
  • Sin Squadron (12)
  • Theta Squadron (10)
• ISDII Relentless, Wing IX (8)
  • Spear Squadron (8)

• ISDII Challenge, Wing X (21)
  • Tempest Squadron (11)
  • Typhoon Squadron (10)
• MC90 Renegade, Wing XXII (29)
  • Eagle Squadron (11)
  • Firebird Squadron (10)
  • Scorpion Squadron (8)

• Spectre Squadron (6)
  Note: Via dual profiles, the TCCOM and SOO are also members of Spectre

SIGNOFF

If there's anything I can help you with Corps-wise, please let me know! Message me on Discord at plif346 or over email at tccom at emperorshammer dot org.

TCCOM-EDR/HA Plif/TC-1/ISDII Warrior/Battlegroup II
MoH/IC/GOE/GSx9/SSx15/BSx38/PCx37/ISMx39/IAR/MoT-gh/MoI/MoC-7doc-6poc-7goc-9soc-57boc/MUA/IS-PW-43GW-88SW-103BW-4CW-PR-11GR-27SR-43BR-2CR/ORA-1C/LoC-3PS/LoS-6PS/DFC-SW/CoE/CoLx12/CoB/LoAx13/OV-25E [Centurion] [Ace 1st] [Ace Ranger 3rd] {TCCORE-COE-MP/1/2-SM/2/4-WIKI}